Mick Mannock
Edward Corringham "Mick" Mannock was a British-Irish flying ace who served in the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force during the First World War. Mannock was a pioneer of fighter aircraft tactics in aerial warfare. At the time of his death he had amassed 61 aerial victories, making him the fifth highest scoring pilot of the war. Mannock was among the most decorated men in the British Armed Forces. He was honoured with the Military Cross twice, was one of the rare three-time recipients of the Distinguished Service Order, and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Mannock was born in 1887 to an English father, Edward Mannock, and an Irish mother, Julia Sullivan. Mannock's father served in the British Army and the family moved to India when Mannock was a child. Young Mannock was sickly and developed several ailments in his formative years. Upon his return to England he became a fervent supporter of Irish nationalism and the Irish Home Rule movement but became a member of the Independent Labour Party.
In 1914, Mannock was working as a telephone engineer in Turkey. After the Ottoman Empire's entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers he was interned. Mannock was badly treated and soon fell ill. Turkish authorities repatriated him to Britain believing him to be unfit for war service. Mannock recovered and joined the Royal Engineers and then Royal Army Medical Corps. He moved services again and in 1916 joined Royal Flying Corps. After completing his training he was assigned to No. 40 Squadron RFC. Mannock went into combat on the Western Front, participating in three separate combat tours. After a slow start he began to prove himself as an exceptional pilot, scoring his first victory on 7 May 1917.
By February 1918, Mannock had achieved 16 victories and was appointed a Flight Commander in No. 74 Squadron. He amassed 36 more victories from 12 April—17 June 1918. After returning from leave Mannock was appointed commanding officer of No. 85 Squadron in July 1918, and scored nine more victories that month. Days after warning fellow ace George McElroy about the hazards of flying low into ground fire, that fate befell Mannock and he was killed in action dogfighting too close to the ground on 26 July 1918.
Early life and education
Edward Mannock was born on 24 May 1887 to Julia and Edward Mannock, of English, Irish and Scottish descent. Edward was the youngest of three; sister Jessie and Patrick. Edward senior was from a wealthy family. His father was a newspaper editor on Fleet Street and his uncle George Mannock was a friend of the British royal family.According to family legend, George had taught the Prince of Wales to play billiards. Edward senior was a Corporal in the British Army and distinguished himself in the Anglo-Egyptian War at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir in 1882. The Mannocks moved to Cork, Ireland in 1887 after his father left the army, and where it has been argued Mannock was born; though this is disputed and conflicting sources give his birth place as Ballincollig in Ireland or Brighton in England.
In 1893, deeply in debt and exasperated with civilian life, Edward senior re-enlisted and the family moved to Meerut, India in May when Edward junior was five. Soon after arriving in Asia, Edward contracted malaria, narrowly avoiding death.
The young Mannock was a keen sports fan and he enjoyed cricket and football. Unlike some of his contemporaries he despised game hunting, and he kept birds and rabbits. As he grew older he became a keen angler. Mannock did enjoy shooting and used an air gun in target-shooting and he was also a passionate violin player, and was skilled with a variety of other instruments. When the Boer War began Mannock's father was transferred to South Africa where he fought in the 5th Dragoon Guards while the family stayed in India. When the war was over his father sent for the family and they moved to Canterbury in England. Mannock's father was a drunkard and suffered from depression. Two months after settling in England, he abandoned his wife and children and took the family's paltry savings with him.
Edward attended the local school, St. Thomas', and helped support the family with menial jobs. After leaving he was pressured by his mother into joining his brother at the National Telephone Company. After three years his health was affected by the stuffy office conditions and he applied, and was granted, a transfer to the engineering department. Mannock moved to Wellingborough, Northamptonshire in 1911 to take his position.
Mannock joined the Territorial Army and served in the Royal Army Medical Corps at this time to keep in touch with his friends from Canterbury at the annual camps. Mannock was promoted to sergeant in 1913. In the spring, he attended a local cricket match and was introduced to Clara Novello Davies, mother of composer Ivor Novello. Mannock was keen to develop his musical talents and was personally tutored by her. Through his local cricket club assumed an interest in politics. He became a political activist, expressed socialist views, was an admirer of Keir Hardie and became the Secretary of the Wellingborough Independent Labour Party in 1912.
Mannock remained a staunch supporter of the British Empire but sympathised with the Irish Home Rule movement. In the Wellingborough YMCA's mock parliament he sat as the Honourable Member for Waterford, the seat of John Redmond leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
Mannock applied for a passport at Christmas 1913, and received a stamped copy on 10 January 1914 describing himself as a telegraph and telephone mechanic. The original survives at the Royal Air Force Museum London in Hendon. On 9 February 1914, he abruptly ended his time in Wellingborough, and boarded a tramp steamer from Tilbury to Constantinople in Turkey to take a position at the Société Ottomane des Téléphones.
In 1914, as war became likely, Mannock and his fellow employees noticed a change in the political climate, and their Turkish hosts became openly hostile and anti-British. At the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, the country remained neutral. In October 1914 the Turks allied themselves with the Central Powers, the German Empire and Austria-Hungary. As an enemy subject he was interned.
Poorly fed and cared for, his health rapidly declined in prison. Dysentery racked his intestines and he was confined to a small cell. One night he managed to escape his cell by squeezing through the narrow confines of its window. Over the next nights, and during his transfer to the prisoners quarters, he forged an exit tunnel which he used on frequent raids to the Turkish Army food stores next-door. One night he was discovered and locked in a concrete box for two weeks. Near death, he was repatriated back to Britain and left Constantinople camp on 1 April 1915. On the two-month journey he contracted malaria once again, surviving the parasite before reaching England via Bulgaria and Greece.
War service
Royal Engineers and Royal Army Medical Corps
On 22 May 1915 Mannock reported for duty with the Royal Army Medical Corps and by July he was sufficiently recovered to join them at his pre-war rank of sergeant. On 25 May he was assigned to the 3rd company, second battalion Home Countries Field Ambulance Service. Upon joining, he found that he had to attend German wounded as well as British and French; something which he found distasteful.Mannock immediately detected apathy in his old service. In his opinion the men lacked enthusiasm for the job of winning the war. He complained bitterly at their half-hearted efforts during practice drills. While there, Mannock attempted to start a branch of the Wellingborough Parliament to instil some patriotism, pride and professionalism but failed. While tending to some wounded soldiers, Mannock sought an audience with his commanding officer. He refused to continue driving ambulances or tending the sick while thousands died in battle and requested a transfer to the Royal Engineers as an officer cadet. Mannock waited for months and his rank rose from sergeant to sergeant-major. Finally, in March 1916 he was finally granted his transfer after an interview at the local recruitment office in Fenny Stratford.
Mannock was conscious his poor education and lower-class background would put him at a considerable disadvantage in the well-educated and higher-class surroundings of the RE. Mannock's solution to his problem was to throw himself into his work. The method was practical but his insular behaviour was construed as odd. Mannock despised his peers who were uninterested in the war and seemed concerned only with the uniforms, quality tailoring and how it would improve their chances with women. Tired of the banal conversations and lethargy of his comrades, Mannock wanted to leave the RE but realised a second resignation would damage his chances of becoming a commissioned officer.
At the suggestion of a friend – Eric Tomkins – Mannock decided to join the Royal Flying Corps. Mannock was initially reticent, concerned his age and physical condition would hinder him. His early departure from two other services may also have encouraged questions about his reliability. Mannock acquired all the newspapers he could for information on the air war. In so doing, he came across an article on the man who was to have a profound effect on him: Albert Ball. Ball was the first fighter pilot to be given any publicity and his exploits inspired Mannock to transfer. In June Mannock was promoted to second lieutenant and on 14 August 1916 he arrived at the No. 1 School of Military Aeronautics in Reading.
Royal Flying Corps
Mannock's training began immediately. He received instruction on aerial gunnery, aircraft-rigging, map reading and flight theory. He passed with honours and was sent to Hendon for elementary flying instruction. On 28 November 1916 he received Royal Aero Club certificate 3895. On 5 December he moved to Hounslow to begin training with No. 19 Training Squadron flying the Henry Farman. After completing his course he was moved to the Hythe School of Gunnery on 1 February 1917 for two weeks and then to No. 10 Reserve Squadron at Joyce Green for advanced training. Mannock's instructor, Captain Chapman said of him, " he made his first solo flight with but a few hours' instruction, for he seemed to master the rudiments of flying with his first hour in the air and from then on threw the machine about as he pleased".At Joyce Green Mannock met Captain James McCudden. McCudden taught Mannock about air fighting. McCudden stressed team tactics and offensive use of the aeroplane. McCudden said of Mannock, "The pupils here during the period of which I write were very good. One I particularly remember was named Mannock. Mannock was a typical example of the impetuous young Irishman, and I always thought he was of the type to do or die".
Meredith Thomas also met Mannock at Joyce Green in February 1917. Thomas recalled how they were told not to turn below 2,000 feet in an Airco DH.2 pusher. Mannock did so and got into a spin at, deliberately. He was keen to see if he could recover the aircraft from such an attitude. Mannock stalled the aircraft, purposely, and followed McCudden's advice; allow it to come out of the stall and centralise the controls, apply opposite rudder in the spin and as the spin slows ease the nose down. Mannock had discovered that air combat was a science and could be perfected. Regardless, his actions earned him a rebuke from his commanding officer, Keith Caldwell.
Mannock was somewhat older than his peers in the RFC and had experienced the brutality of war first-hand. Meredith Thomas remembered this earned him a reputation as a serious-minded man. Mannock was inclined to be reserved, but was a good conversationalist, patient and willing to assist others but quick to anger. He masked his hatred of the Turks but the intensity with which he carried out his training was sometimes misunderstood.